Search

MR imaging with gadopentetate dimeglumine (MR arthrography) is a new technique for evaluating the shoulder. Early clinical experience indicates that MR arthrography improves the visualization of intraarticular structures [1-3]. On T1-weighted images, high-signal contrast solution outlines the low-signal surface of the cuff tendons, the contour of the glenoid labrum, and the course of the glenohumeral ligaments. This essay illustrates the anatomic features of normal glenohumeral structures seen on MR arthrography and common pathologic disorders of the labral-ligamentous complex and rotator cuff.

Gallbladder visualization has been described during delayed Tc-99m RBC blood pool imaging in patients with some combination of anemia, renal disease, and multiple recent blood transfusions. The authors present two cases of gallbladder activity that appeared 1 hour after the injection of Tc-99m RBCs in patients without renal or hematologic abnormalities.

As the Food and Drug Administration trials for biliary lithotripsy in the United States near completion, future criteria for patient eligibility remain to be defined. Gallstone calcification greater than 3-mm partial rim on plain film (KUB) or oral cholecystogram (OCG) has excluded patients thus far, since early results of gallstone clearance (lithotripsy plus chemodissolution) were suboptimal with calcified stones. To evaluate the usefulness of these criteria for gallstone fragmentation, computed tomographic (CT) scans were performed on 20 patients immediately prior to lithotripsy to evaluate gallstone density and 24 hours after lithotripsy to observe the CT appearance of fragmentation. The adequacy of fragmentation was determined by pre- and post-lithotripsy sonography. This report constitutes the results of these investigations.

Background: In the treatment of gallstones with extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy, the bile acid ursodiol is administered to dissolve the gallstone fragments. We designed our study to determine the value of administering this agent., Methods: At 10 centers, 600 symptomatic patients with three or fewer radiolucent gallstones 5 to 30 mm in diameter, as visualized by oral cholecystography, were randomly assigned to receive ursodiol or placebo for six months, starting one week before lithotripsy., Results: The stones were fragmented in 97 percent of all patients, and the fragments were less than or equal to 5 mm in diameter in 46.8 percent. On the basis of an intention-to-treat analysis of all 600 patients, 21 percent receiving ursodiol and 9 percent receiving placebo (P less than 0.0001) had gallbladders that were free of stones after six months. Among those with completely radiolucent solitary stones less than 20 mm in diameter, 35 percent of the patients receiving ursodiol and 18 percent of those receiving placebo (P less than 0.001) were free of stones after six months. Biliary pain, usually mild, occurred in 73 percent of all patients but in only 13 percent of those who were free of stones after three and six months (P less than 0.01). There were few adverse events. Only diarrhea occurred with a significantly different frequency in the two groups: 32.6 percent were affected in the ursodiol group, as compared with 24.7 percent in the placebo group (P less than 0.04). Severe biliary pain occurred in 1.5 percent of all patients, acute cholecystitis in 1.0 percent, and acute pancreatitis in 1.5 percent; endoscopic sphincterotomy was performed in 0.5 percent, and cholecystectomy in 2.5 percent., Conclusions: Extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy with ursodiol was more effective than lithotripsy alone for the treatment of symptomatic gallstones, and equally safe. Treatment was more effective for solitary than multiple stones, radiolucent than slightly calcified stones, and smaller than larger stones.

Fifty-nine cases of nontraumatic splenic disease were reviewed to evaluate the roles of clinical findings, computed tomography, ultrasound, and radionuclide scanning in diagnosis and management. Patient groups included lymphoma (30 patients), infarct (11 patients), abscess (9 patients), cyst (5 patients), hemangioma (3 patients), and hamartoma (1 patient). In no case were clinical findings alone sufficient to diagnose a splenic lesion. Clinical and laboratory manifestations were nonspecific in all groups. Moreover, no radiologic study reliably diagnosed splenic lymphoma or leukemia. All other focal splenic lesions were consistently diagnosed noninvasively. Cross-sectional imaging was more useful than radioisotope scanning, and often provided adjunctive diagnosis of extrasplenic pathology. The superior detail, spatial resolution, and sensitivity of computed tomography made it the single most valuable diagnostic modality.

A substernal goiter may descend into the thorax. However, a truly aberrant intrathoracic thyroid represents a rare and anatomically different entity that requires appropriate modifications in approach and surgical technique.

Thirteen cases of splenic abscess were reviewed retrospectively from pathologic and medical records from 1978 through 1986. Splenic abscess is uncommon, but the diagnosis has been made more frequently in recent years due to the increasing number of living immunosuppressed patients and to the use of more sophisticated radiologic diagnostic techniques. Five patients had a solitary abscess (SA) and eight had multiple abscesses (MA). Seventy-five percent of the patients with MA were immunosuppressed, most had no symptoms from the splenic abscess, and none died. Only one patient (with SA) died, a mortality of 10% overall. Previously the mortality has been 40 to 70%. The decreased mortality may in part be attributable to the more rapid diagnosis (3.8 days for SA, 1.8 days for MA) of the splenic abscess, prompting early treatment. Improved radiologic studies reduce the time to diagnosis and thereby improve the prognosis. Computed tomography (CT) was diagnostic for splenic abscess in 4 of 7 patients and suggestive of abscess in the other 3. Computed tomography was the diagnostic modality of choice in suspected splenic abscess, as it provided more information than the other radiologic studies used.